What Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook Tell Us About VoIP

There are a few things about Mark Zuckerberg you should know. For one thing, as the co-founder of Facebook, he’s the world’s youngest billionaire. Perhaps of greater interest to our readers is what sets him apart from most others in the technology world. Despite being a very social, high-touch person, Mr. Zuckerberg doesn’t have a desk phone. Instead, he relies on his iPhone to communicate everywhere he goes. He may talk just as much as you or I, but his generation doesn’t know the pre-Internet world, and mobile telephony suits his needs just fine.

This may be surprising, but nowadays, it’s not uncommon. Most people routinely show both their desk and mobile phone numbers on business cards and in email signatures (not to mention fax) – and for good reason; generally speaking, they’re separate entities. The desk phone is what you call to reach someone when they’re at their desk, and you call their cell phone when you need to get a hold of them right away, wherever they are.

Since you usually have your cell phone with you at your desk, but can’t have your desk phone with you on the go, having only a mobile phone number as your primary contact mode is a more attractive option. After all, it’s with you anywhere you go, even when at your desk. On a practical level, using one number is easier to remember and manage. It’s good for employers too, since unlimited wireless plans will be more economical than providing new hires a desk phone, plus

they will likely be bringing their own phone which they can use now for work as well.

While this is beneficial from a cost standpoint, there are drawbacks that come with keeping your employees connected this way. Here are two to consider:

1. Personal lines are an “outside phone number” for business purposes

With a VoIP solution, ringing somebody’s phone is simple. You either look them up in the company directory – which can often be viewed on display of the VoIP handset - or dial their extension, which should only be a few digits.

This is much easier to manage than consolidating everybody’s mobile phone numbers. Think about the constant updating needed when adding new hires or dropping people who leave – not mention change their numbers. If you don’t catch that or miss including their number in the directory, they’ll be left in the dark, and that will typically be discovered during a time-sensitive situation.

Furthermore, there is (literally) over three times the effort to dialing a ten-digit phone number than a three-digit extension. This magnifies the potential for human error to waste time and money in more ways than you might think. Consider the possibility of mixing up area codes if you work out of a city that’s in an area code overlay. For instance, if you’re in Manhattan, there can be confusion between the 646 and 212 area codes; likewise for 768 and 305 in Miami. You don’t want to run this risk and call a wrong number by accident - perhaps with confidential or sensitive information. This brings me to my next point:

2. Consider how you’re transmitting sensitive data

If you’re in the financial, legal, or engineering industries, you know that there is a great deal of confidential information that changes hands in the course of doing business. This necessitates encrypted emails, firewalls on internal networks, and passwords to get onto company computers.

Again, going back to the issue of outside phone numbers, consider that leaving a voicemail with confidential information on a phone number that does not belong to the intended recipient is only one misguided keystroke away from happening. By needing to dial ten digits to call a given phone number, who you are hoping to be a coworker, you have ten opportunities to misdial.

With a three-digit extension, on the other hand, you have only three opportunities to misdial; and even if you do, it’s on the company’s internal phone network - meaning that the phone call will never actually leave the organization. What might cost you a bit more today could save you much more in the future - if sensitive data falls into the wrong hands. Think of it as an insurance policy.

Conclusion

Mark Zuckerberg can certainly afford a landline, so cost is not the issue in his choice to be totally mobile. This mode of communicating makes perfect sense for Millennials, but when you’re running an organization, it’s a bit more complicated. You can save some money this way, but there are several implications to consider and this article provides two examples.

Facebook itself is a powerful communications platform, and this too may look very attractive, but it’s not ready yet to replace your phone system. For now, a VoIP solution that supports mobility will serve you better, as well as your employees. To reinforce that idea, in my next article I’ll explore other advantages of VoIP phones over mobile handsets.

About the Author:

Maxwell Arnold is a lifelong technology enthusiast and passionate follower of the telecom industry, with a focus on the UX (User Experience) aspect of any given technology. Email Maxwell at maxwell@maxwell.me.

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